Realizing where the problem lay, Ande's spirits lifted. The soul fire in his skull blazed, making Black Knight Dakning feel uneasy. But Ande had no time to deal with Dakning, so he simply grabbed a skull from a nearby skeleton mage, knocked a hole in it, inserted a metal bone, and used the Rebirth of the Withered Bone to connect it to the original circuitry.
With the current intelligence of the skeleton mage, it just stood there, passively waiting for Ande to complete the process before receiving the command to release dark magic. Perhaps it was the extra energy in the soul fire, but the first few attempts of the skeleton mage failed.
However—when Ande was on the verge of despair, he didn't give up. Instead, with hope rising, the second attempt of the skeleton mage's Bone Bind spell succeeded on the first try.
The mage's casting time had improved by at least a second!
Ande clapped his hands and laughed out loud, feeling overjoyed. After calming down, he turned his head toward Black Knight Dakning.
"Look at him, then look at you. You're supposed to be a high-ranking black knight, but you're as dumb as a pig! Don't call me 'master' when there are outsiders around!" Ande teased.
Dakning, furious, couldn't hold back anymore, snapping back, "Don't be too arrogant! How could I, a proud black knight, be worse than a mere skeleton mage? You say not to call you master, then I'll call you master from now on! Hmph... Don't think that because of the master-servant contract, I can't talk back!"
"Ha! Good, that's more like it! You're a good kid, so I'll reward you with a Disaster Knight King's body." Ande grinned mischievously. He laughed, then turned his attention back to the skeleton mage. He had more experiments to conduct.
Dakning initially retorted, but upon hearing the mention of the Disaster Knight King's body, his attitude immediately shifted to one of surprise. "What? Disaster Knight King's body?!"
Ande didn't bother explaining further, continuing with a haughty attitude, "Of course, you know who your master is."
Dakning fell silent, and Ande continued directing the skeleton mage to use the Bone Bind spell until its mental energy was exhausted.
Ande had a clear understanding of how the metal bone particles worked by now. He had made several improvements to the skeleton mages, and each one was more successful than the last. Their casting speed had increased by about a second, exactly as Ande had hoped.
Ande suspected that the reason for the initial failures was the skeleton mages' unfamiliarity with the newly established channels for dark magic. Once they adjusted, they began succeeding each time.
As for Black Knight Dakning, Ande simply attributed his failures to his lack of intelligence. He couldn't even outperform a skeleton mage!
However, as the mass transformation of the skeleton mages began, another problem arose: the metal bone particles ran out.
Frustrated, Ande led his subordinates to the Black Water Nether River, commanding the skeletons to gather more metal bone particles. As the main force, the three bone hounds were treated to special privileges, with any soul fire they captured going straight to their mouths.
"Big Hair, Second Hair, and Third Hair, go catch me some metal fish. Remember, it has to be metal! If you catch some, not only will I treat you to a big meal, but I'll even take you on a vacation to the main plane!" Ande bribed the hounds, and they happily set off, though whether they understood his words was unclear.
After two busy days, Ande finally gathered enough metal bone particles and completed the transformation of the skeleton mages.
To avoid drawing attention, Ande covered the metal wiring with ordinary bone and did the same for the large-axe skeletons, bone hounds, and Dagama's sharp claws, making everything look less conspicuous.
Once the modifications were done, Ande stretched lazily, cracking his bones, and walked out of the stone house. Tomorrow, he would check on the situation with Tina, as the first opponent's information was already in hand.
"Master, you lied to me!"
Just as Ande stepped outside, a creature with a skeleton body and a black knight's head stumbled toward him, flailing its arms.
"What do you mean 'lied'?" Ande turned around and casually asked.
"You... You said you'd give me the body of a Disaster Knight King, but what you gave me is just a level 3 skeleton soldier! Such a worthless body—this is an insult to us black knights!" Black Knight Dakning's soul fire flickered violently as he sent Ande a furious mental message. If not for the master-servant contract, he would have already attacked Ande.
"Shut up. This skeleton body is temporary. I never said I'd give you the Disaster Knight King's body right away," Ande shrugged, unbothered.
Dakning was forced to admit, "You... you didn't say anything about a time limit."
"Exactly. So just wait, the king's body will come... eventually." Ande smirked, continuing on his way.
"Hey, look at that idiot. The master tricked him into using a skeleton body, and now he can barely walk. Haha!" Laughed the large skeleton lord, Red, from the nearby graveyard. He was teasing Dagama.
Dagama, enraged, used his long claws to pierce Red's legs five times.
"Shut up! Don't flaunt your height!" Dagama growled, clearly irritated.